According to the Canada Revenue Agency, Marie-Therese Coulombe is dead. At first, the letter she got from the agency amused her. Then she realized she would lose her pension checks. She says it took her 31 phone calls to find the person who could correct the error. But that person refused to talk to her. “She said, ‘Madame, I can’t talk to you, I have to talk to the executor of the estate.’ I said, ‘There is no estate! I’m on the phone with you!’” Coulombe said. Only after she contacted local media did the agency agree to correct the error.

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More than 20 of Michigan’s 83 counties report that they have ground up paved roads and changed them to gravel roads rather than fix them. Montcalm County officials say it costs them $10,000 a mile to grind up old roads and lay down gravel compared to more than $100,000 a mile to repave a road.

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District of Columbia parole officials are bound and determined to nab Edward M. Hawkins. Hawkins failed a drug test back in 2007, and they’ve been trying to nab him ever since. One reason they may not have caught him yet is that he died in 2008. Family members say parole officers keep calling and asking about him, and they say they keep telling him he’s dead. An agency spokesman said they’ll close the case as soon as they get a death certificate. Why didn’t they look for a death certificate the first time the family told them Hawkins was dead? “That is being reviewed,” he said.

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In Arizona, Marcia Powell died of heat-related causes after being left in an uncovered outdoor prison cell in 108-degree weather for four hours. Powell, who had a history of mental illness, had been convicted of prostitution. Odd, I didn’t think prostitution carried a death sentence.

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In Florida, Springstead High School principal Susan Duval forced valedictorian Jem Lugo to rewrite her graduation speech. Lugo says Duval told her the speech’s pop culture references and teen slang might upset some audience members. Lugo says Duval had her write and deliver a speech that was more conventional, even formulaic. And Duval knows something about delivering the same old speech. A Florida newspaper reports that state education officials fined her $1,500 and gave her a letter of reprimand in 2007 for plagiarizing material in graduation speeches she delivered in 2004 and 2005.

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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into a break in at the McDonough Police Department. Someone broke into the evidence room and tampered with materials. It isn’t clear yet what, if anything, was taken.

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It wasn’t exactly the second Boston Tea Party, but one Washington state high school student decided to do his part to protest big government. At Peninsula High School, a student in a rhetoric class delivered a speech in favor of marijuana legalization. Then, he allegedly lighted a joint, smoked it and ate the remains. He was arrested for misdemeanor suspicion of unlawful drug possession. Those who were present report that the speech was well-written and convincing.

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In West Virginia, state Del. Jeff Eldridge, D-Lincoln has introduced a bill to ban Barbie dolls. He says the dolls cause girls to focus too much on looks. Really? Women in West Virginia are too concerned about their looks?